Time to celebrate! Salary hikes are very likely this year

There's good news round the corner for salaried employees: a large number of companies across the country are planning to increase salaries more than the level of inflation this year, and feel optimistic about the economic outlook over the next 12 months.

In fact, salaried employees in Mumbai and Delhi can be more pleased than those in the rest of the country, since a large majority of employers in these cities said they would dish out salary hikes higher than inflation.

These findings form part of the latest survey on the HR and employment scenario for the third quarter of the financial year ending March 2012, conducted by Grant Thornton.

Salaried employees in Mumbai and Delhi can be more pleased than those in the rest of the country, since a large majority of employers in these cities said they would dish out salary hikes higher than inflation. Reuters

Mumbai turned out to be the most optimistic city as far as corporate India was concerned, with an overwhelming 95 percent of respondents optimistic about the Indian economy over the next 12 months, while Kolkata was the least optimistic, with 31percent expressing a pessimistic view on the economy, the highest percentage among the major cities surveyed.

Mumbai, Delhi, Pune, Bangalore, Chennai and Kolkata were the major cities surveyed by GT for the purpose of assessing the latest HR and employment trends.

On the salary hikes front, 60 percent of those in Mumbai said they would hike salaries more than inflation, while a healthy 52percent of Delhi respondents also said the same.

While roughly about 25 percent of respondents in the other cities said they would hike salaries to beat inflation, the other cities played safer, with a majority of those in Bangalore, Chennai and Pune saying they would hike salaries to match inflation.

Only in Kolkata, 28 percent of the employers - the highest number among all the cities - said salary hike levels would be difficult to predict, and would depend on prevailing conditions.

An overwhelming 82 percent of Mumbai respondents said they

had increased their headcount of employees in the past year, as hiring remains robust despite the economic challenges. The Indian banking and financial services sector has also shown robust hiring trends again, coming back after a disastrous 2008 crisis, and adding to the Mumbai figures.

While in all cities a majority of employers said they had increased their headcount, Bangalore was the city where the number of employers reducing headcount was the largest at 12 percent.

On availability of skilled workforce, Kolkata topped the list of those saying there was a shortage of skilled workforce (35 percent), while Mumbai and Chennai employers said they was in general, enough skilled workforce in their cities, with 47 percent respondents in Mumbai and 46percent in Chennai saying the availability was good.